Vetiver for Land Restoration

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Often people get confused over the vernacular names of vetiver. Below is a list of names prepared byNarong Chomchalow, published in Vibrant Versatile Vetiver, Special Bulletin No. 2003/1, Pacific Rim Vetiver Network, on pages 37-43.

The present list of vernacular names of vetiver is compiled by Dr. Narong from various sources whose origins are too numerous to mention in this archive. In most cases, they have been rechecked by the scientists of the countries of origin, although some may still be wrong in their spelling, especially for non-romanized languages where there is no standard system of transcription of local languages into Roman letters; thus a given name may be written in many different spellings. Although every attempt has been made to obtain as much as possible all vernacular names used in all vetiver-growing countries, the present list is still far from complete. Thus, readers are requested to send in their contributions for additional names, especially those used by the minority people in different dialects, or in countries/dialects which are still missing, in order to make the list as compete as possible.

The list below gives the name of the country (in bold italics) where vetiver is grown or known to exist. Vernacular names are given after the language or dialect, which is written in italics. All names are arranged in alphabetical order. Vernacular name(s) most commonly used in a given country is/are underlined. To make the list of vernacular names uniform, the first letter of every word of all vernacular names is capitalized as if it were a proper noun. This is to avoid confusion with ordinary words. A comma (,) is used to separate vernacular names. Compound names are not hyphenated, but written as two or more words, e.g. Gondha Bena, Khus Khus, Xiang Geng Chao, Vala Khas Khas.

Central: Faek Don

Chiang Mai: Ya Faek

Venezuela:

Spanish: Petiver

Vietnam:

Vietnamese: Huong Bai, Huong Lau

Note: According to Ken Crismier , these two terms are not vetiver, but other wild grasses. However, according to Paul Truong these two vernacular names are applied for native species of vetiver, Vetiveria nemoralis, while the one popularly used for soil and water conservation, V. zizanioides, which was recently introduced, is known in Vietnam under the English common name, ‘vetiver’.

It is interesting to note the following:

1.Names that signify fragrance/fragrant of the root of V. zizanioides are:

6. It is rather strange that the original Tamil word, ‘vettiver’ (meaning a coarse grass), in which the English common name, ‘vetiver’, and the generic name, Vetiveria, are derived, is not as popularly used as the other South Asian (North India in particular) words, namely Khas, Khas Khas, Khus, and Khus Khus.